Tactical Empathy Negotiation

Use $ARGUMENTS as initial context.

When to use this skill

• Salary, vendor, procurement, or contract negotiations.
• Handling objections, anchors, or stuck conversations.
• Preparing talk tracks, concessions, and closing plans.
• Any high-stakes agreement that needs tactical empathy.

How to use this skill

1. Define the objective, success metrics, limits, and walk-away.
2. Map the counterparty: roles, incentives, pressures, emotions.
3. List hypotheses and possible black swans.
4. Build a question ladder with calibrated how and what questions.
5. Draft a conversation script using tactical empathy and core tactics.
6. Design a concession plan with trade rules and guardrails.
7. Run a pre-mortem and add mitigations.
8. If information is missing, ask targeted questions.

Resources

• references/voss-tactics.md - Definitions and sample phrasing.
• references/negotiation-checklist.md - Prep and execution checks.
• templates/negotiation-plan.md - Final structure.
• examples/negotiation-voss-example.md - Sample output.

Output guidelines

• Deliver a structured plan and short talk tracks.
• Keep scripts concise and realistic for live conversation.

Missing information to ask for

• Context and negotiation type (price, salary, contract, timeline).
• Primary objective, minimum acceptable, and walk-away.
• Constraints, deadlines, decision makers, and BATNA on both sides.

Keywords

negotiation, tactical empathy, Voss, mirroring, labeling, calibrated questions, objections, concessions, close